I Tested the Ninja Swirl by Creami: It Lives Up to the Hype (2025)

When Ninja, the brand that makes some our top-tested air fryers, blenders and other small kitchen appliances, invited me to a launch party for their new ice cream maker, I knew I had to go. Their original ice cream maker, the Ninja Creami, came out in 2021 and people still ask me all the time if they should buy it. (Spoiler alert: Yes, it's a fun machine that makes great ice cream and frozen desserts quickly.)

Since the launch of the Ninja Creami, the brand came out with a couple of iterations of the viral ice cream maker, including the Ninja Creami Deluxe that has more functions than the Ninja Creami, the Ninja Breeze that was a streamlined version of the machine and has since been discontinued, and now the Ninja Swirl by Creami. Kaitlyn Hebert, Ninja's SVP of Global Marketing, shared with us that the Ninja Swirl's launch was the most successful launch in SharkNinja history and over 96,500 people signed up for the pre-launch waitlist.

The Ninja Swirl by Creami can make soft-serve ice cream and other soft-serve desserts in addition to all the scoopable frozen desserts the Ninja Creami can make. There currently isn't another product like it on the market designed for home consumer use.

Cuisinart makes a soft-serve ice cream maker that my team enjoyed testing. That machine works like a traditional ice cream maker where you freeze the bowl, add the ingredients and let it churn for about 20 to 25 minutes before dispensing it.

The Ninja Swirl by Creami and the Ninja Creami, on the other hand, work like a Pacojet, which is a type of ice cream maker that's more commonly found in restaurants and allows you to freeze your ingredients in smaller batches and blend it on command for serving.

The Ninja Swirl by Creami works similarly to the Ninja Creami in the sense that you freeze your desired base in the provided pint containers (the Swirl comes with two) and then pop it in your freezer for 24 hours before processing it in the machine. The bases can range from your traditional ice cream base to a plant-milk alternative, fruit, chocolate milk, protein shakes, yogurt and more.

The Ninja Swirl by Creami processes the frozen dessert on the right side and dispenses the soft serve on the left. To process your base, you place one of the pint containers into the blending container and secure the lid with the blade. Then you attach it to the machine, lock it into place and select Soft Serve or Scoop on the control panel.

From there you can choose from Ice Cream, CreamiFit (meant to be used with protein powder), Lite Ice Cream, Milkshake, Sorbet, Gelato, Frozen Custard, Fruit Whip or Frozen Yogurt. Many of these are similar to the settings on the Ninja Creami and the Ninja Creami Deluxe but include upgrades that reflect how consumers were using their ice cream makers at home, Hebert told me.

To "churn" the frozen base, the blade lowers into the cup and spins to break it down, layer by layer until it can fully mix it. The main difference between these settings is the amount of time they blend for as well as the speed at which they blend, Hebert said. Harder bases take more time and power to blend, while softer ones require less of both. Once the base processes, you can remove the pint from the blending container and either enjoy it as is or attach the soft-serve attachment, connect to the machine and dispense it.

The Ninja Swirl by Creami is brand new and I only had it for about a week before publishing this review. I made four recipes in it using the included recipe booklet, sticking to recipes marked "easy" so I could get a good feel for the machine before continuing on to something more advanced.

Soft serve with store-bought ice cream

I experimented by using chocolate Häagen-Dazs, which is notoriously rich and creamy, ice cream to make soft serve. (I used store-bought ice cream as the base as a trial since it's harder to mess up.) I transferred the ice cream to the Ninja Swirl by Creami's pint container and froze it for 24 hours as directed.

When I was ready to process it, I had some trouble figuring out how to use the Ninja Swirl by Creami. There are a lot of parts and pieces that must be perfectly in place before the machine will even turn on. Fortunately, all of the parts are well-labeled and the color user guide is very informative, so I eventually got it work.

As expected, the machine was loud when processing the ice cream, but that's hard to avoid when you have a powerful motor and blade crushing through solid ingredients. (Think of a blender breaking down frozen fruit pieces.)

After processing the ice cream, I dispensed it through the soft-serve attachment and the results were delicious. It was light and creamy, and dispensing it was fun. There's certainly an entertaining aspect to it that makes it feel special to use after a meal with your family or for a party.

Frozen yogurt with store-bought yogurt

More impressively, I also made soft-serve frozen yogurt. Frozen yogurt is traditionally hard to make because of the high water content and low fat ratio. If you try to make it in a traditional ice cream maker or freeze it in popsicle molds, for example, it often gets too icy to eat.

After I froze Chobani Vanilla Greek Yogurt in the included pint container, processed and dispensed it, I was blown away. It was rich, creamy, had good structure and melted in my mouth. It rivaled some of the best frozen yogurt I've had in stores. These results alone are why I'd recommend the Ninja Swirl by Creami.

Homemade soft serve and ice cream

In addition to trying store-bought ingredients, I made the easy vanilla soft serve recipe from the recipe booklet as well as the vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips. The soft-serve recipe used instant pudding mix as a thickener and stabilizer, while the vanilla ice cream used cream cheese.

My main takeaway? Stick to the directions and plan ahead. During these tests, I learned how important it is to freeze the ingredients for at least 24 hours before using: The bases were too soft to process and turned out spoonable instead of scoopable. The fix was easy though: I just put them back in the freezer and tried again to get the results I hoped for. I'd also recommend storing the pint containers in the coldest part of your freezer for the best results. If you're trying to plan ahead for a party, you can buy more pints for the Ninja Swirl by Creami so you can have enough on hand. (Ninja claims each pint yields four servings.)

One downside: I could smell the motor working hard when I processed my second pint immediately after the first. It's also worth noting that while you can re-freeze leftovers and process them a second time, you need to make sure the ice cream pint's chute is clean and clear before dispensing the soft serve.

No, you can not use the same pint containers; the Ninja Swirl by Creami's are designed to dispense soft serve, while the Ninja Creami's don't have that feature.

Overall, the Ninja Swirl by Creami is easy to clean. All of the removable parts are top-rack dishwasher-safe — just make sure all the parts are disassembled first. If hand-washing, Ninja recommends using a tool with a handle to clean the paddle, likely to avoid accidentally coming into contact with the sharp blade.

When I used the Ninja Swirl by Creami correctly, I didn't have any trouble with dripping or leaking, but when the base was too soft or the pint container's chute was clogged from re-freezing it after use, it dripped out of the container onto the soft serve side of the machine.

So far I really enjoy using the Ninja Swirl by Creami, so I'd say it's worth it for several reasons:

• It's unique and innovative, and it comes with an 85-page recipe booklet that's filled with step-by-step instructions, recipes, charts and tips that help you understand how it works so you can make your own creations.
• I love that I can use it to make healthier dessert and snack options that are actually satiating. (Yogurt in the middle of the day doesn't do it for me, but frozen yogurt? Yes, please!)
• It's great for people with dietary restrictions since you can customize each base exactly as you like.

Performance aside, it's a little big, which makes it hard to store, and it's pretty pricey, so I'd only recommend it if you think you're going to use it a lot. If you already have the Ninja Creami, it may not be worth investing in another ice cream maker that's so similar. I'm personally excited to perfect my soft serve dispensing technique and experiment with different bases and recipes.

Nicole Papantoniou is the director of the Kitchen Appliances Lab where she oversees all testing and content related to cooking, drinking and eating. She's been testing kitchen appliances professionally since 2014 and has helped develop them. She tested the Ninja Creami and many other ice cream makers, as well as many other Ninja products. She's been using the Ninja Swirl by Creami since it came out.